A Tomato Salad to Die For

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I love tomatoes. Unfortunately, farmers can't wait until their tomatoes are fully ripe before picking them and bringing them to market. They get too soft and can be damaged by the first person who picks them up. However, tomatoes will continue to ripen after they are picked. The trick is to purchase them a couple of days before you want to eat them. Let them sit on the counter and they will become soft and delicious.

Tomato Salad Recipe

Now, let's get to my favorite tomato recipe! Cut up three or four ripe tomatoes and take out the seeds and liquid parts.

Add some freshly grated parmesan.

Cut a small amount of onion (maybe a quarter of a small one) into tiny pieces and add.

Toss with home made salad dressing, salt to taste, and eat with a spoon.

Salad Dressing:

Fill a pint jar a bit less than ¼ full with balsamic vinegar.

Add organic olive oil to almost fill the jar. Be sure that the oil that you use is truly olive oil. Many of the brands sold in supermarkets are full of other cheap, hard to digest and not good for us oils. Real olive oil tastes a lot like olives.

Add two crushed garlic cloves after letting them sit in a bowl. The medicinal part of the garlic only happens once the bulbs are cut or crushed. It takes about ten minutes for the allicin to form so let them be in a little bowl by themselves for this amount of time first.

Add ¼ teaspoon powdered mustard, a generous pinch of salt and a tablespoon of maple syrup. Yum! This salad dressing should be kept in the refrigerator as should all good olive oil.

When this garden goodie is ripe, it's also time for tomatoes as slices in BLTs and hamburgers, slivers on club sandwiches, wedges in lettuce salads, and eaten in hand with a little salt!